Budding Techies Spend Their Summer at App Camp

By Ellen Lee (Contributing Writer, San Francisco Chronicle)
Samantha Johnson won’t have a sunburn or mosquito bites to show for her time at camp this summer.

But the 11-year-old will take home something else – an iPhone app called “Cupcakes vs. Bunnies” that she developed herself. Samantha spent last week on the Stanford campus sitting at a flat-screen computer, shoulder to shoulder with her fellow campers, learning the fundamentals of designing a game app for the iPhone and iPad.

The iPhone and iPad summer camp reflects the changing interests of tweens and teens, as an increasing number of them own smart phones, particularly iPhones. About a third of teenage cell phone users own smart phones, a Nielsen report said last year.

“I figured I could make my own” app, said Samantha, whose family owns an iPad.

“I think I could make an app that’s just like ‘Angry Birds’ or ‘Cut the Rope.’ “

Read the full post at Budding techies spend their summer at app camp.Editor’s note: Got a question for our guest blogger? Leave a message in the comments below.About the guest blogger: Ellen Lee is a freelance journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. A former business and technology reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, she has also written for the Contra Costa Times, Washington Post, CNNMoney.com and Bay Area Parent. She serves on the national board for the Asian American Journalists Association.